Tafsir al-Sadi - Abd al-Rahman al-Sadi’ - (340)

Tafsir al-SadiAbd al-Rahman al-Sadi’

(55–57) “So do not be impressed by their wealth or their children. Allah intends only to punish them through these in the life of this world and for their souls to depart while they are disbelievers. They swear by Allah that they are indeed among you, though they are not among you. Rather, they are a people who are afraid. If they could find a refuge, caves, or a place in which to hide, they would rush toward it headlong.”

Allah Most High says: Do not be impressed by the wealth or children of these hypocrites, for there is nothing enviable about them. The foremost of their supposed blessings upon them is that they prefer them to the pleasure of their Lord and disobey Allah for their sake. “Allah intends only to punish them through these in the life of this world.” The punishment intended here is the hardship they endure in acquiring them, the intense effort they expend in pursuing them, the anxiety that preoccupies their hearts, and the weariness of their bodies.

If their pleasures from them were weighed against their hardships, those pleasures would be negligible by comparison. Because their wealth and children distract them from Allah and His remembrance, they become a source of ruin for them even in this world.

Among their gravely perilous consequences is that their hearts become attached to them and their desires extend no further. They thus become the ultimate object of their pursuit and the furthest limit of their aspirations, leaving no share in their hearts for the Hereafter. This causes them to leave this world as “their souls depart while they are disbelievers.”

What punishment could be greater than one that entails everlasting misery and unremitting regret?

“They swear by Allah that they are indeed among you, though they are not among you. Rather,” what drives them to swear this oath is that they are “a people who are afraid”; that is, they fear reversals of fortune. Their hearts contain none of the courage that would enable them to reveal their true condition. They fear you should they disclose it, yet they also fear that you will renounce them, whereupon enemies would snatch them away from every side.

A person of strong heart and firm resolve, by contrast, is moved by those qualities to make his condition known, whether it is good or bad. But the hypocrites have been clothed in the garb of cowardice and adorned with the ornament of falsehood.

He then described the severity of their cowardice, saying: “If they could find a refuge” to which they might flee when hardships befall them, “or caves” which they could enter and inhabit, “or a place in which to hide”—that is, a place they could enter and fortify themselves within—“they would rush toward it headlong”; that is, they would hasten and flee to it. They possess no inner strength by which they could remain steadfast.

﴿٥٥ - ٥٧﴾ ﴿فَلا تُعْجِبْكَ أَمْوَالُهُمْ وَلا أَوْلادُهُمْ إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ بِهَا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا وَتَزْهَقَ أَنْفُسُهُمْ وَهُمْ كَافِرُونَ * وَيَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّهُمْ لَمِنْكُمْ وَمَا هُمْ مِنْكُمْ وَلَكِنَّهُمْ قَوْمٌ يَفْرَقُونَ * لَوْ يَجِدُونَ مَلْجَأً أَوْ مَغَارَاتٍ أَوْ مُدَّخَلا لَوَلَّوْا إِلَيْهِ وَهُمْ يَجْمَحُونَ﴾ . يقول تعالى: فلا تعجبك أموال هؤلاء المنافقين ولا أولادهم، فإنه لا غبطة فيها، وأول بركاتها عليهم أن قدموها على مراضى ربهم، وعصوا الله لأجلها ﴿إِنَّمَا يُرِيدُ اللَّهُ لِيُعَذِّبَهُمْ بِهَا فِي الْحَيَاةِ الدُّنْيَا﴾ والمراد بالعذاب هنا، ما ينالهم من المشقة في تحصيلها، والسعي الشديد في ذلك، وهم القلب فيها، وتعب البدن. فلو قابلت لذاتهم فيها بمشقاتهم، لم يكن لها نسبة إليها، فهي -لما ألهتهم عن الله وذكره- صارت وبالا عليهم حتى في الدنيا. ومن وبالها العظيم الخطر، أن قلوبهم تتعلق بها، وإرادتهم لا تتعداها، فتكون منتهى مطلوبهم وغاية مرغوبهم ولا يبقى في قلوبهم للآخرة نصيب، فيوجب ذلك أن ينتقلوا من الدنيا ﴿وَتَزْهَقَ أَنْفُسُهُمْ وَهُمْ كَافِرُونَ﴾ فأي عقوبة أعظم من هذه العقوبة الموجبة للشقاء الدائم والحسرة الملازمة. ﴿وَيَحْلِفُونَ بِاللَّهِ إِنَّهُمْ لَمِنْكُمْ وَمَا هُمْ مِنْكُمْ وَلَكِنَّهُمْ﴾ قصدهم في حلفهم هذا أنهم ﴿قَوْمٌ يَفْرَقُونَ﴾ أي: يخافون الدوائر، وليس في قلوبهم شجاعة تحملهم على أن يبينوا أحوالهم. فيخافون إن أظهروا حالهم منكم، ويخافون أن تتبرأوا منهم، فيتخطفهم الأعداء من كل جانب. وأما حال قوي القلب ثابت الجنان، فإنه يحمله ذلك على بيان حاله، حسنة كانت أو سيئة، ولكن المنافقين خلع عليهم خلعة الجبن، وحلوا بحلية الكذب. ثم ذكر شدة جبنهم فقال: ﴿لَوْ يَجِدُونَ مَلْجَأً﴾ يلجأون إليه عندما تنزل بهم الشدائد، ﴿أَوْ مَغَارَاتٍ﴾ يدخلونها فيستقرون فيها ﴿أَوْ مُدَّخَلا﴾ أي: محلا يدخلونه فيتحصنون فيه ﴿لَوَلَّوْا إِلَيْهِ وَهُمْ يَجْمَحُونَ﴾ أي: يسرعون ويهرعون، فليس لهم ملكة، يقتدرون بها على الثبات.